Wednesday, August 25, 2010

y'all might have seen this already... pretty ridiculous--that it was perfectly caught by a police car's dash cam and that it was on Dayton's 675, which i'm familiar with as with many people I know.

I actually first saw it posted on Twitter--say what you will about Twitter but if you follow the right people it's useful, worthwhile, and can be the fastest way to find out about news, events, etc. I even won 2x tickets to a Kiss concert this weekend for following live nation NC, lol.

My Dad forwarded it to me as well; in an email that originated from his work peers (civil engineers) it was humorous that they were worried about the bridge pier and/or impressed by it's resilience. which honestly, is completely understandable--that's the stuff that challenges them. Sure they can make bridges withstand weather and normal wear and tear but it's these freak incidents that truly test their work. One of Cincinnati's bridges was hit by a truck/train a couple years ago, May 2008. (compliments of my Dad, thx)

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Oh, wow. Boy Genius tweeted this the other night amid some of his rants against the new BlackBerry 9800 Torch and how frustrating the operating system was. While I haven't personally had any experience with a Torch or BlackBerry OS6 which is on it, it's not hard to imagine. I actually remember reading this article last summer and there was a brief discussion about this on a CrackBerry podcast last year as well.

This write up really seems to have come to fruition too. RIM has hit a plateau and it's noticeable. Now the BlackBerry is still amazingly solid and really nothing wrong from most vantage points--it's more about the outlook of what's to come in the future. With the current state it's hard to see as much growth and development that has been and will continue with other platforms and other phones. It really lends to the fact that it was around this time last year that I started carrying two phones because my BlackBerry wasn't enough and I desired more mobile functionality--and I actually don't really have a wish for one phone right now.

Anyways, I just thought it was intriguing to read that BGR post a year later and think about it...to think that my BlackBerry hasn't really done anything new in the last year and probably won't do anything new in the next year, lol. Well, I did get the trackpad in the last year so I guess we can count that--though it's hardware and not software... when will I be so happy with a phone that I can colorware it again?

You’d think that RIM would be replacing highest-end product with a brand new device, right? Well, previous rumors suggested that the BlackBerry Bold 9700 would get nothing more than a simple refresh, and we’re able to confirm those rumors. We have a leaked internal document detailing all sorts of fun stuff. Market positioning, technical overviews, and a bunch more. The big picture view? The BlackBerry Bold R020 (9020? 9750 We’re just guessing) will be practically identical to the 9700 visually. Internal changes include a 5 megapixel camera sensor, and 512MB of RAM up from 256MB. It will also launch with BlackBerry 6 — obviously. We’d love to say there is more, but there isn’t, so check out the leaked document and let us know your thoughts, ok?

Hello everyone! I'm so happy to tell you that Mark proposed to me last night! He proposed August 14th, 2010 and we first met on October 14th, 2009.

So Mark and I went shopping Saturday (the 14th) and when we got back we went to his place. While we were out he said he had a couple of surprises for me that may or may not involve Susie Q (that is my cat). So we got back and walk in his apartment and he has a table right by the door and there was a cash register sitting on the table! For some reason, I've always loved playing on cash registers and he always jokes that he's going to get me one so I can play with it. So I'm all excited that I got a cash register and I start playing with it hitting buttons, and then I hit the total button and the receipt pops up and I look at it, and on the top it says, Will you marry me? I was like WHAAAT?! Will you marry me?? Then he got down on one knee and pulled a box out from behind the cash register, opened it up, there was my beautiful ring and he asked me if I would marry him and then I said yes! I couldn't stop laughing I was so happy and excited. It was a great moment and so original on his part. I love him, I'm so excited to marry him, and I can't wait for you guys to meet him! Enjoy the pictures!

Click here to go to Mark's Photobucket and see all the pictures!Ring Photos

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a good ‘ol regular update, and I always say it’s been too long or forever so I’ll just skip saying that…

In June I took a week of vacation to go home early before Patrick and Sharon’s wedding because Hanno was coming and I wanted to spend some time with him. That was a lot of fun however I didn’t feel well most of the time, not completely sick but not completely well either. Not sure what was wrong with me, perhaps my body was fighting off something more serious and it could have been much worse—so I’ll be thankful I was mostly ok. Tiffani was planning to work that week so I wondered if she could get a 1 way ticket to fly to Columbus or Dayton on Friday afternoon before the rehearsal/dinner and then drive back with me since I was planning to drive. Good deals were awaiting…it was about $120 for her to fly to Dayton from Charlotte connecting through Cleveland. Anyways, the wedding was wonderful and everything basically went perfect. It was pretty big too, Patrick and Sharon have lots of family and friends. There were some nice pictures too:

After the wedding there was no time to rest, Tiffani was moving the following weekend! However, we had been planning it for a while and I had been helping her pack, slowly but surely, for about a month prior. She has a lot of stuff and I like to be precise and organized so things went well. She was moving into the Millennium apartment complex, just finished in February/April of this year and across the street and rail tracks from my place. Not only was I excited to live closer to her, her old place was a good 15 miles and 25-35 minutes depending on traffic, but she would be closer to work—only about 5 minutes away, and living in the neat neighborhood of South End. Her new place is super nice and I love it. While it’s smaller, as a studio, it’s set up very well and the space is optimized super efficiently. To make up for the lack of space in the unit itself she got a storage unit in her building, one floor up and not too far away. Even with the storage unit she’s not paying more than her old place which was an important factor and wonderful that we could make that work. I really like having the storage unit—in part because I like to be a packrat and keep everything, like boxes…lol. She got her keys on Friday June 25th and we moved a few things that night, the big move was planned for Saturday. Ended up getting the smaller U-Haul truck, 10 foot box, but not the van style though. Big thanks to Kyle for helping the entire day. We had to make two trips and Brandon and Emily joined to help for the second one. It was very tiring but overall very successful. I say I hate moving but am always happy about it when it’s over because I’m in a better place. I need to stop renting and buy a place so I can stay for longer…

The next week and weekend were unpacking and settling which went great. After that it was time for Tiffani to take a week long vacation with her family in Oak Island, NC on the beach, I was invited too! It was really nice, one of her Dad’s co-workers has a house about two blocks from the beach. I haven’t really been to the beach much in my life so I don’t get as excited as other people but it’s pretty cool. I hate the sand though. It gets everywhere and can be super hot in the sun. I couldn’t take too much time off work so I came back Monday evening. It was nice to spend time with her family too, I like them and we have fun. She has two younger brothers, Ricky and Calvin, and it was funny to see her as the big sister. It made me imagine that if I had a brother I would have been even more successful terrorizing my older sisters. We actually hope to go back to the house sometime in the next couple months just for fun with friends.

I know most of the stuff I post is tech related. I actually had a nice post about that iPhone/at&t article but lost it somehow. It said it saved the post but I think it reverted when I restored my browser session before I was able to publish it. Oh well, I wasn’t happy about it so I just didn’t re-write it. Anyways, I think I did post that I got an iPhone 4—after getting a 3GS, signing up for unlimited data, and then exchanging it for an i4. So, that was successful and I’m pretty happy with it. The jailbreak and unlock was finally released so that makes it a lot more fun. It’s really quite impressive that the “iPhone dev team” was able to find a vulnerability that could be exploited through the web browser—meaning the device can be rooted OTA, over the air. Previously they had very nice, easy to use programs where you would simply plug the phone in, and the program would just be a button “click to jailbreak” and I was always very impressed with that. I knew it would happen eventually and that I should just be patient and wait—which I was.

I finally got my first visitors besides my parents! Patrick and Sharon came the last weekend in July and it was really fun. It was great to see them and I enjoyed showing them around and just doing fun double date things with Tiffani and me. They flew in Friday afternoon and left Sunday evening. We went to Common Market, Nix Burgers, Dandelion Market, Dixies, rode the LYNX, Original Pancake House, Concord Mills, Dave & Busters, Penguin, played games, and went swimming in the pool. Needless to say it was busy with lots of delicious food. To that note I’ve been trying to run and work out in my apartment’s gym so I can do fun and unhealthy things without feeling to guilty, and it would be nice to be in better shape as well J

Well, I think I need to get working on setting up a Fantasy Football league. also, here's a cute picture of Susie Q in a basket.